Six weeks into my 9th grade year in 1981, when I was a fresh-faced newcomer to the campus of Greenville High School in my hometown in South Carolina, a suspended student came to the campus and stabbed a teacher in the chest with a knife during second period.

I was in a nearby classroom when we heard the screams of students in Henry Chiarello’s class who witnessed the event. At first I thought the screams were joyful, perhaps coming from some assembly or pep rally my class had not been invited to. Soon, though, as more students spilled out of their classrooms and saw the teacher on the hallway floor with blood spewing from his wound, it became clear that we were hearing screams of terror. The rest of the day became a blur.

It has been a long time since I thought about that day more than 25 years ago, but when I was visiting South Carolina over the Thanksgiving holiday, the subject came up during a family conversation. The next day I went to the new public library and researched the story in the microfilm files for the local newspaper.

His killer, an 18-year old student named Jewel Garrett, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years. I understand she has come up for parole on at least two occasions, but has not been released. I hope she will spend her life in prison and that she thinks about her unspeakable act on a daily basis.

The irony of the story is that she intended to attack another teacher, but she knocked on the wrong classroom door.*

RIP Mr. Chiarello. You did not deserve this.

[ * Update: After replying by email to the comment below and learning more from Mr. Chiarello’s sister, the myth of his being the unintended victim has been disproven. I credit that misperception to the rumors flying around school that day and in the weeks after. As one would expect, the family still grieves.]

After Thanksgiving, one American holiday that has not yet been ruined by corporate advertising and capitalism, one’s thoughts turn to Christmas, which is just the opposite. In the spirit of the season, here is a special Christmas message from someone who needs no introduction.

The Congress’ Joint Economic Committee released a report today showing that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost $1.6 trillion, or $20,000 for a family of four. So far. Which raises this question, among others: How can Bush get away without acknowledging the war is a massive tax increase on every person in America?

[Flashback: In January 2006, Nobel winning economist Josef Stiglitz estimated the wars would cost $2 trillion. Looks like he knew what he was talking about, but he better revise his estimate for a war that apparently has no end.]

[Update: Stiglitz has a piece in Vanity Fair which further expounds on the financial emergency/crime Bush has unleashed on the US economy.]

Your government is watching you (and me) at all times. According to this article, a retired AT&T technician says he connected a device in 2003 that diverts and copies onto a goverment supercomputer EVERY CALL, E-MAIL AND INTERNET SITE ACCESS ON THE AT&T SYSTEM.

And the deputy chief of national intelligence says we just have to trust the government and big business to properly safeguard our deepest secrets. So that’s okay then.

[UPDATE: Further reading on this subject reveals a quote from Mark Klein, the AT&T guy in this article: “[The spying equipment] copies everything. There’s no selection of anything, at all — the splitter copies entire data streams from the Internet, phone conversations, e-mail, web-browsing. Everything.” And the drones in Congress are arguing over whether to grant immunity to these giant corporations who are helping the government spy on everyone, not just so-called terrorists. Sleazebags, all.]

Here’s a nice song (featuring Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, George Harrison, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton) for a Sunday afternoon, when one is thinking of going home for Thanksgiving and wondering why it’s suddenly getting dark at 5:15 in the afternoon.